I love cooking! Especially when I have superior products to work with like the guinea fowl supremes and pak choy of today. I found both of these items at the Fresh Paradise supermarket; the guinea fowl from France and the pak choy from Asia.

The pak choy looked as if it had just been harvested from the garden.

Because of the pak choy, I decided on an Asian marinade for the supremes. I could tell this was French guinea fowl because they left the odd feather on as proof that this was once a living bird. Thanks French people😦

So okay, I picked off the feathers, put the meat into the marinade, cleaned and separated the pak choy leaves, chopped the garlic and chilli and turned the oven on to preheat. The light didn’t come on. That was annoying. I called Uli, the manager, and was he puzzled! He said that this had never happened before at any of his properties. While I was explaining that the usual clients at executive suite type apartments eat in restaurants and don’t really use the appliances, other than the coffee maker, when Bandit streaked by yowling hysterically and trying to outrun the plastic bag that was somehow attached to her body. Jesus! Uli said a technician would be around in 15 minutes, so I hung up, pulled the cat from under the sofa and discarded the plastic bag.

Just as the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of the technician, my French phone rang with the Orange representative wanting to discuss, in detail, my phone services. I told her, rudely I’m afraid, that I didn’t have time.

The technician told me that the oven was “kaput” and that he would not be able to replace it until tomorrow, which left me racking my brain for an alternate cooking method for the guinea fowl. I ended by cooking it on top of the stove and it was good but that was not the way I wanted to cook it. If you decide to try this recipe, instead of cooking it on the stove top, put the meat in a 350 F oven for 25 minutes and then turn up the temperature to 400 F for 10 minutes.

Inspiration for the pak choy comes from BBC Good Food http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1183/sesame-pak-choi

Heat the 2 tbsp peanut oil and 1 tbsp sesame oil in a wok, then add the garlic, chilli, fish sauce and pak choy leaves. Stir fry until the pak choy is just wilted. Remove from flame and set aside, covered.

Brown the guinea fowl in a hot pan, 5 minutes per side. Mix the left over marinade with 1/4 cup of water and pour over the guinea fowl, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

You need to change the blog name to Not cooking, not in Sens. We are being pestered on two fronts about the phones. Mobile and land line. Frustrating. Lovely dish under difficult conditions.
Best,
Conor

Thank you Conor. Today I have the “I want to go home” blues. The replacement oven is even more basic than the first one, I want all of my pots, pans, spices, etc. Oh well, I’m making pork belly today and we’ll see. Maybe that will lift my spirits🙂

Did the stove people fix it? This looks great, Rosemary! It always stuns me that there are these fancy show kitchens that no one uses . . . and then someone does and everyone is flabbergasted.

Once I grilled steak in a friend’s fancy, fancy apartment. When the apartment started smell like plastic and was filling with smoke, I realized very quickly that a) he had never used his grill before, and b) no one had bothered to hook up the exhaust fan because no one thought anyone would ever use it!

They installed a new stove. These appliances are just placeholders. No one is expected to use them. These apartments see tourists or businessmen/women who eat out during their entire stay. Coffee, sugar, salt, pepper, laundry, dishwasher, dish soaps, toilet paper, paper napkins, paper towels etc are all provided and renewed weekly. But the last stove oven looked and smelled new. No one had ever used it! The thing probably died from shock🙂

What a pain about the stove – when I first moved to Spain I only had a little hob top thingy – caused me to become very inventive. but you´re already very inventive Rosemary and it looks wonderful! Hope Bandit it less traumatised now🙂

I had the same problem in a place; the gal who lived in an apartment before me had never used the stove; the shipping bolts were still attached so it could not work. Her husband had only cooked by using the broiler for steaks! Good job improvising!